


Snap Summer

by pdorkaa



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, Tarot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-13 03:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14741190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pdorkaa/pseuds/pdorkaa
Summary: Team Seven sits out in a park to read tarot. Goes about as well as you might expect.





	Snap Summer

**Author's Note:**

> so my best friend and i went to a park to chill and read tarot and hope that people tip, so all in all: based on a true story. i was like hmmmmm, which of my favourite characters would absolutely be all for that?

The sign is pastel blue, the words slightly crooked and lopsided on it: fortune-telling. FORTUNE, TELLING, rather, because the size of it doesn't allow for longer words, and here quality was certainly sacrificed for size. It is propped up against a tote bag and a green backpack, just on the edge of a blanket laid across the lush summer grass.

The blanket itself is occupied by three people, presumably the proprietors of this service, the quality of which - going by the sign alone - is questionable at the very best. Between them, there is a variety of playing cards laid out, french just as well as different decks of tarot, and a tip jar with a few rattling coins. Two of the three, a blond boy and a girl with pastel hair are immersed in a complicated spread of the tarot, both deep in concentration. 

The third of them, a boy with smooth, dark hair is lying on the blanket, one arm slung across his eyes as to shield himself from the sun despite the fact that they are sitting under a high oak tree, on the latticework of dancing sunspots.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, it says you're going to grow old alo--"

A hand across his mouth stops the blond; either that or the murderous glance the pastel-haired girl, Sakura, pins him with.

"Naruto" she says, "not one more word." The tone is polite, certainly, even if it has a fairly ominous undertone. Naruto clearly decides to play it safe, because he raises a placating hand and smiles, as much as Sakura's hand still across his mouth allows him.

"Maa, Sakura-chan, it was just a joke!" He says as Sakura removes her hand with a last warning look. "It does say, though, that you... Need to hone your knowledge?"

"I know" she flops back onto the blanket, her head on the brunet's stomach. He stirs, casting a disdainful glance at the pink head but lets it be, and his eyes slide shut again.

"I know" Sakura continues, "but those anatomy classes are just hell" she sighs. "I mean, how does that baa-chan expect every one of us to pass with the highest grade?"

"Didn't you say she was the best surgeon the country has?" The brunet boy serving as her pillow asks. The tone is flat, but clearly pointed.

"Yeah. Still a slave-driver, that woman."

"I mean" Naruto starts, "she probably just wants you all to be the best." The words themselves aren't a surprise, but the mature expression on his face is, and both of the two look at him. "Like, you know, she doesn't want to let you out there if you're not certain you can save a person" he says, scrunching his nose up as he finishes. The others nod.

"Probably" Sakura concedes, her eyes drifting up and through the foliage. "Do Sasuke's next!" She suggests, reaching to poke the brunet in the side.

"Once a week is more than enough for me" he drawls, batting her hand away. "You shouldn't encourage the idiot."

"Asshole" Naruto says, but it's fond, and they remain in silence for a little while. He leans back on his elbows and looks around - both for potential clientele, and for the sake of looking. It's pretty here in this park - it's been too long since he's been in nature.

"But Sasuke" Sakura sits up, "we need to look like we're doing it if we want people to come!" She gestures to the tip jar between them.

"You say that like we want people to come" he sighs, but sits up as well, tone amicable enough, and holds out a hand to cut the deck Naruto offers him. His demeanor suggests he wants to be done with it as quickly as possible, more suffering through it than participating, but Naruto knows him, and knows he's enjoying himself. Well, that, or he's realised it's easier if he plays along. Really, either works.

"Okay! Ugh, Sasuke, you're gonna get hit by lightning" Naruto laughs as he picks the first card. Sasuke looks at him with a deadpan expression - granted, not much different from his usual one, but this time Naruto chooses to interpret it as 'take it seriously if you're going to bother me with this'.

"Okay, okay, um, let me think..." he trails off, concentrating on the cards. "So this lightning here definitely means that a terrible period is looming--"

"This card here, with the people jumping out of the tower?" Sakura cuts in gleefully.

"Yeah. And there's cards that mean that if you... do not face this adversity with a strong heart, you could be ... evil? I don't know, the devil, basically." Naruto looks up at Sasuke, who is still levelling him with that flat look.

"Dobe, you're horrible at this" is all he says, leaning back on his palms. "Sakura, is this what you want to bring people in with?"

Sakura, the good friend that she is, just punches him in the arm and grins at Naruto. "It's not about how true it is" she insists. "It's more about what you could learn about yourself" she instructs, her tone mock-serious. She and Sasuke both glance over at Naruto, who is still pondering a card or two of Sasuke's future. No matter how the blond insists that he doesn't all believe the cards tell the future, he still takes his "practice" very seriously. Don't look down on it, is all he says, when someone criticises him, but it's clear that he's serious about the entire fortune-telling issue. Oh, just as well - if that so happens to coincide with Sakura's increasingly creative plans to fund their summer, no one is going to complain.

Well, Sasuke will. He isn't too keen on getting intimate with Sakura's fist - no more than he already has -, so he mostly keeps those comments to himself. Entirely sensible.

"These mean" Naruto looks up, his face serious, but the glint in his eyes belie mischief. "That you're gonna have to face your emotions about people that matter!" He exclaims, and goes down with Sakura on top of him as Sasuke tackles them both. They giggle, even under Sasuke's considerable muscle mass (he might be lanky, but weight is another matter entirely, they both note), and after sufficiently grinding their faces into the ground, he lets them up and sits back with a sigh.

Sakura blows some grass out of her nose into a tissue, warning Sasuke with a look that dares him to try that again, and levers herself upright. Naruto just laughs, bright and brilliant in the sunlight, and rubs a spot of dirt on his face that does nothing but smudge it even more as he reaches to straighten the sign that got knocked over in their brawl. "You're ruining business" he laughs at the other boy.

"Oh, I'm ruining business" Sasuke mutters, but slides back to his vacated spot on the blanket and pulls out a book to read.

"Ew, Political Economics? Really?" Naruto frowns, not at the book itself, rather at the fact of its existence. Sasuke doesn't even bother deigning him with the lift of an eyebrow, and flips a page.

"Naruto, don't you have exams to study for?" Sakura asks, ever the reasonable one, and when Naruto cheerfully shakes his head, she lets it be for now. The blond is surprisingly good at managing himself, after all; and if life seems to run away with him sometimes, oh well. Naruto wouldn't really be Naruto without that, would he?

Before the subject of the looming exams could turn into something potentially more serious, though, Naruto's saving grace arrives, in the form of a shrill voice. Oh my God, it says.

"Oh my God" the girl exclaims, and drags her friend closer. "Are you doing tarot readings?" She asks at a somewhat more conversational volume, and drags her reluctant friend even closer to them, practically toppling over their bags.

"Yeah" Naruto grins up at her, "yeah, we are. Well, I am. Come sit!"

The girl's eyes practically sparkle with excitement, and she drops onto the corner of their blanket with surprising grace. Thankfully she let go of her friend, who seems to be entirely resigned to this turn of  the events, and he sits down as well, onto the grass next to them. He pulls out a cigarette and tips his head upwards, eyes wandering to the clouds.

The rising smoke gives an unexpected mystical allure to the air of the reading, and Sakura watches Naruto as he shuffles the deck with expert hands. The girl is leaning in ever closer, obviously keen on getting to know what's in store for her, and even though Sakura never gave much credit to the tarot as a whole, she'll admit that this moment is the most exciting.

Naruto asks her to cut the deck, and starts laying out a spread of the cards.

Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all.

**Author's Note:**

> i swear. i swear, the only thing in front of my mind's eye when writing this was [jam-art](http://jam-art.tumblr.com/)'s naruto art.  
> also, because i have no original ideas, the take on team seven is very, very loosely based on blackkat's [backslide](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1382857/chapters/2895346).  
> and yeah, the story went down pretty much like that in real life, except thankfully neither of us has to study political economics. or anatomy.


End file.
